American Flag Suncatcher

When I saw this craft at Kaboose, I knew this is my kind of craft.

 I love the monotony of it, the repeatedness of it.

That it takes some time and that you have to follow a pattern.

I'm weird, I know. 

Unfortunately, the exact reasons I loved it, are the reasons my two year old left the table and went on to destroy the house while #1 and I were finishing up.

This is definitely a craft for a little bit older child. 

Here is what you need:

Straw (if you have a Diet Coke habit like I do, this is a great excuse to hit up McDonald's for a large Diet Coke for $1.00 and ask for extra straws!)
Red, White or Clear, and Blue Beads
Rexlace (cord for stringing)
Glue Gun
scissors
pattern (available at Kaboose)

Start with these:

Well, actually, we started here:

And #2 and I separated out all the red, clear and blues.  This was by far her favorite part of the craft.  She loved it.  And I can sleep better at night know that she really does know all her colors! :)

Next, cut out your individual pieces of cord.  You will need 12 pieces.  Kaboose says to cut them 10 inches long, but I cut mine 12, and I still had a bit of a hard time getting a knot in it.  So I would highly recommend going 12 inches.  Take your first piece of cord and fold it over top of the straw, so that it is looped over; the front half in front, the bottom half behind.

Start stringing your beads now.  You want to string the beads over BOTH pieces of cord.  The pattern for the first 6 rows is 6 blue followed by red, white, red, white, red, white, red.  Tie a knot at the end of the last bead.  I looped back through the bottom bead and then tied a knot.  When you are all finished, we will hot glue the knot to make sure it is secure.

Continue on with this pattern.  Once you reach this point below, take a snack break!

Now it is time for just the red white strands.  Once you complete 6 red white strands, get out the hot glue gun and dab just a little on each knot.  Allow to dry.  Trim excess cord off.  Then trim the straw and string a piece of the cord through the straw and tie the two ends together.  You can use a suction cup if you have one to stick it to the window or just hang it like we did.

#1 loved this craft.  She apparently enjoys monotony too!

Hallie

4th of July Cupcake Liner Wreath

This craft can almost be completed 100% by a 4 year old. This a good thing because it allowed The Princess to have control and she really did feel like she had created something beautiful.

The bad thing?

A 4 year old had complete control.

What started as a plan for a red, white, and blue 4th of July wreath turned into a wreath for her bedroom painted in her favorite colors. It is of course pink, purple, and blue. I have no idea why I even have other paint colors in my house. Unless of course I use them to make pink, purple, and blue in the event that we run out. So, use your imagination and try to picture the wreath in traditional 4th of July colors. Or let your children make it in their favorite colors and call it a firework wreath. Whatever works.

I saw this wreath last year in a parent ing magazine as a spring wreath and knew The Princess would love it. I have no idea what the original directions were so I made them up as we went and tried to create something similar.

You will need:
Cupcake liners
Mini cupcake liners
Paint
Glue
Paper plate

Paint cupcake holders desired color. The end result is better if you don't flatten then completely while painting. Allow to dry.

Cut center out of paper plate, leaving you with a ring (this is the only step I helped with because she couldn't cut the center out without going through the sides). Glue larger cupcake liners around rim of plate. 

Next, glue mini liners inside large.

Voila!
Bryn

Why we love it Wednesday: Totally Me Deluxe Scrapbooking Kit

I am not a scrapbooker. 

I'm just not. 

I think the whole idea is awesome ... and I tried it out when #1 was first born.

But I agonized over which pictures to choose (and you know when you first have a baby, there are hundreds) and how many pages to do per month of age.  And it all had to be perfectly journaled with all my thoughts on what she was doing each month. 

And then she was a year old and I had only completed months one and two to my satisfaction.  Yikes! I was never going to catch up and that was just depressing!

Snapfish photo books work much better for me. 

But we are not talking about me right now, this is about #1.  She received this scrap booking kit as a gift and has been begging to open it up and get started.  She decided to do a scrapbook about our recent trip to California.

I'd been dragging my feet, but today, we got it out. 

And it was PERFECT for her.  Here's why:

It came with everything she needed:  Glue, fancy scissors, pretty paper, stickers, and a very nice album.  All she needed was the pictures.

She has been able to do it entirely on her own. 

It is giving her writing practice as she has added captions to every single picture.

It is good quality stuff.  The album is very nice and it won't be easy to tear up, especially by little sisters.

I highly recommend this - it is a great rainy day project or it's too hot to go outside project. 

She is still working on it right now - 1.5 hours and counting! 

It is available at Toys R Us, probably other places too ... at TRU it runs $21.99.  And totally worth it, especially if you are needing some quite time ;)

Hallie

Imitating the Greats

We kicked off our summer with art appreciation week.  On our first day, we tried our hand at imitating two great artists.  I checked out an art history book from the library so that we could read about the artists we chose and then we got to work.

First up - Piet Mondrain



I used the Making Art Fun website for a little background on the artist.  You can see his biography here.

#1 describes this artist as the guy that likes to paint red, yellow, and blue squares.  And, really she is right!  Though that is not all he did, that is what we focused on.  After thinking about it some, she decided that red, yellow and blue were not her favorites, and she chose red, orange and green. 

You need canvas (or paper, but the kids really feel like real artists when they are painting on canvas!), washable paint and some masking tape.  Tape off your squares, #1 did her own, I helped #2.  Then paint away.  Neither child wanted to go back and paint the white lines black to stay true to form, but that is ok, it is, after all art!

The second artist we imitated was Jackson Pollack. 




This one was really fun.  I used the storyboardtoys.com website for some background information on Jackson Pollack - you can find it here.  Mr. Pollack felt that he needed to be part of the art, he liked to walk around it, be near it.  His style is termed "action painting".  He used all sorts of different devices to paint with - knives, brooms, paint scrapers, etc.  We used brushes, forks, knives, spatulas, really anything I could find in the kitchen.  We also did this one outside!  That way they could be as messy as they wanted - and the grass looked great when we were finished. 

For this one, we just used a very heavy paper.  I think they turned out great!  The kids really had fun with this one and it would be a great party theme I think if you have an aspiring artist.

If you go to jacksonpollack.org you can create a piece of art using your mouse in his style.  Both the kids loved this (we did this first to get an idea of how the artist did it) and you can even print them out when you are done!

Hallie

A week of Arts and Crafts: Homemade Silly Putty

We are going to focus on fun stuff you can do to keep your kids busy and avoid hearing the dreaded, "I'm Bored" this summer!  Towards the end of the week, the crafts will focus on 4th of July!  Bryn kicks it off with Homemade Silly Putty!

**************

Homemade Silly Putty (Flarp)

Last weekend we spent $7 on Gak.

For one container.

The commercial says Gak is back...

I say, "can you go away again?".

It may be cheaper elsewhere, but The Princess had a birthday coupon for Toys R Us, so that's where she found her much anticipated goop. She has asked for it for months, so she was pretty excited. We got home and quickly put newspaper and magazines down so that it wouldn't stick to the table.

So instead it stuck like wet dough to the paper, wasting a whole layer

...probably $1.17 worth.

Also, on the commercial the kids obviously are playing with at least 3 containers at a time. She wasn't impressed with the small amount she purchased. She hasn't played with it since.

I HATE wasting money.

After much glaring at the offensive tub of goo, I remembered a website that had a recipe for silly putty. When I had first visited the site I thought that it was less like silly putty and more like goop. If it was slimey and could also copy newspaper I knew she would love it. Also, she would think I was magical. That may be the best part about being a mom.

The process was very easy. We didn't have the ingredients on hand, but one visit to Walmart and $4.75 later, we were in business.

For the project you will need:

*Elmer's Glue-All
*Stay-Flo liquid starch
*Food coloring

- The website insists that it is muy importante (I'm totally bilingual) to use the Glue-All multi purpose glue and not Elmer's school glue.

- I used plastic disposable cups because I wasn't sure I would ever feel safe using a bowl or cup again that had held starch.

You will use equal parts glue and starch. Measure out your glue and then add food coloring to achieve desired color and stir.

Next add the starch and stir. It gets gooey pretty quickly, so I just stirred until I felt it was combined and then let it sit for several minutes to allow the starch to be absorbed.

All of the liquid will not be incorporated after the five minute wait time, so pour the remaking starch out and then pour out your mixture onto a paper towel.

Allow the mix to sit for another minute or two.

Next, pick up your goo and start rolling it and folding it around in your hands.

It's pretty slimy and quite gross, but also oddly satisfying. The Princess was happy to mix the first color...but "let" me do the second one. It will start to become more of a solid until you are left with a ball that holds its shape.

Now it's time to play.  This stuff was so cool!  It really was goopey but with qualities of silly putty, such as the all important ability to copy newspaper. Score! It does stick to magazines, but was fine on foil, wax paper and paper plates. Also it smells about a trazillion (that's a lot!) times better than the Gak.

Bryn

A Rock Collection for Dad

When I asked The Princess what she wanted to make for her dad for Father's Day, she said a rock collection. Offering up a rock collection means true love when it comes from her. She loves rocks in every shape and color. If you happen to live in my neighborhood, please accept my apology for any missing rocks around your mailbox. It's possible they are in my garage in a bucket. If you can identify your rock, you can have it back. No problem. But, The Princess will give you the "why did you just break my little bitty heart" look. Be prepared.

Anyway, I started looking for crafts we could make that would incorporate rocks plus be a semi functional gift. This post from Crafts by Amanda was perfect.

What you'll need

1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup water
bowl
cookie sheet
1/2 cup pea gravel (we pulled out the smaller rocks from our landscaping rocks)

The Princess was able to do this craft for the most part from start to finish. I did help her with the spelling and perfected the shape a bit, but other than that she was able to make the gift on her own.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Combine the flour, salt, and water in a bowl. I didn't have any problems with the dough coming together, but the original post says to add small amounts of flour if it is too sticky, being careful not to add too much as it will cause the finished project to crack.

Roll a portion of the dough into a ball and then flatten to 1/2 inch thickness while creating your shape. (We had shapes anywhere from 1/4 of and inch to a little over 1/2 and inch. They all turned out just fine). The Princess wanted to make a heart, so we shaped a large one and then I let her use cookie cutters to cut out from the remaining dough for her grandpas. With the large heart I wrote with a toothpick and then she placed the rocks on top. I then pressed them into the dough a little further for her so that hey wouldn't fall off. She went to town on the other shapes and added rocks to them as well.

Bake for 2 to 2.5 hours. Ours took 2.5 to feel totally dry. Let cool completely before removing it from the pan.

I put the girls footprints on the back of the large one and then sprayed it with a clear sealant.

I have no doubt my husband will love this gift. If not, he'll get "the look".

Bryn

Another Mother's Day Craft: Coaster Art Work

**Again, if you are my mother, please stop reading this one now!**

So, I wanted to do one more craft for Mother's Day.  Preferably an easy one.  I thought about doing pictures as coasters, but since I had already done the flower pots, I was trying to think of something different.  Then I thought I should do something with their artwork.  Both the kids are really into coloring right now.  So how about artwork coasters???  Once I got it figured out, they were super easy and really cheap!

Before you start this project, please learn from my mistakes.  Mod Podge will make the following writing utensils run when going over top of it:

Try 1:  Washable Markers
Try 2:  Permanent Markers
Try 3:  Crayons

What finally did work was scanning their art into the computer, printing it out, and leaving it to sit for 24 hours before getting out the Mod Podge. 

The second problem I ran into was that regular old printer paper wrinkled when Mod Podged onto the tile.  Ugh.  The fix for this was to print out the art onto card stock.

As I almost chucked this project in the trash, I suggest you just start with those suggestions, your life will be simpler, I promise.

So, gather all your stuff -- for this, you really don't need a lot.  For phase one, you need the following:

Tiles can be bought at Lowe's or The Home Depot.  I got mine at Lowe's for $0.16 a piece.  I just bought the 4 X 4 white bathroom tiles.  They have a glossy finish, but this did not present any problems.  You will also need Mod Podge, a foam brush, an acrylic spray sealant (can be found at Michaels.  My can was $7.99, but I used the 40% off coupon), and your child artwork.

Phase two requires just a couple more things ... Felt and E-6000 glue.

Step 1:  Mod Podge the artwork to the tile.  Use the foam brush and brush on a thin layer of Mod Podge on the tile.  Carefully place the artwork on top of the tile.  Smooth with your fingers from center to edges.  This will get any air bubbles that may be trapped out.

Leave the tiles to sit for about an hour.

Step 2:  Come back and Mod Podge over the artwork.  Use your foam brush and apply a thin layer.  Allow to dry for aprox. 30 minutes.

Step 3:  Repeat step 2.  I applied 4 coats total.  Letting tiles dry for 30 minutes in between each coat.

Step 4:  Apply acrylic sealer.  I recommend doing this in the garage.  Spray nice and evenly over the tiles.  Allow 1 hour to dry.  I applied 3 coats.

Step 5:  Add felt feet to your coasters.  I cut out "circles" from felt sheets and used the E-6000 glue to stick them on.  You can cover the entire back if you like, but I went with this way because, quite frankly, it seemed easier and I was ready to be done!

Allow to dry for a few hours.  And then you are left with your finished project ...

Hallie

Flower Pots: Mother's Day Craft

STOP!  If you are my mother, please stop reading this post.  It will spoil the surprise.  (And if you are my mother, you had better been reading this post!  But stop now.  Really.)

So, Mother's Day is right around the corner and once again, no ideas for the Grandmas.  Both the grandmas live far away and gift giving is always some what of a challenge.  What do they have/not have?  What do they need?  What is easy to ship?  I can go on and on.  I can never come up with a good idea.  But., the one thing I do know is, they love pictures of the grand kids.  So this is what we made ...


I saw this idea a very long time ago done for a Teacher, but I thought it would be perfect for the grandmas.

Just pretend the pots aren't already painted :)

First, your supplies:

Flower Pot
Paint
Pictures of your kids
Card Stock in lots of colors
Tape
Glue
Scissors
Styrofoam
Skewers

Step 1:  Have the kids paint the flower pot.  Allow to dry overnight.

Step 2:  Have a photo shoot with the munchkins.  Print out the pictures and cut our their little heads.  Also, cut out flower shapes from your cardstock.  I used a cookie cutter to trace because I have no artistic ability whatsoever.  Glue little heads to flower shapes.  Let them dry. (note that I actually used construction paper.  You really want to use cardstock, it is much sturdier.  You'll see how I fixed it below.)

Step 3:  Fit your Styrofoam into flower pots.  I was lucky enough to find these Styrofoam balls at Michaels that fit perfectly.  Using lots of glue, glue "grass" on to the top of the Styrofoam.

Allow to dry.  Then take your scissors and trim it up wherever needed. 

Step 4:  Glue flowers onto skewers.  Vary the length of the skewers to add visual interest.  (That sounded totally professional, didn't it?).  I used that E-6000 glue.  That stuff is crazy strong!  I went ahead and glued little pieces of cardstock to the backs of the flowers, I didn't think the construction paper was strong enough on it's own.  But if you started with card stock, you should be good!

Step 5:  Insert Skewers into Styrofoam grass. 

Voila - flowers that will last way longer than any that you could have ordered.

Both kids loved all of this project.  Painting, hamming for the camera, glue ... what's not to like?  I am sure the Grandmas will like it too!

Hallie

Earth Day Hairy Caterpillar

Ok, so I know I said #1 loved the last craft, but this one was by far her favorite.  Well, at least it will be her favorite if it ever grows ... but I am getting ahead of myself here.

The craft is to make your own Hairy Caterpillar.  I found it at Family Fun Here.  Love this website by the way - so many very creative ideas to have fun with the kids.  We use this a lot. 

First things first ... gather all your stuff:



And say Hello to Peanut ... Hi Peanut!  This is Peanut's debut on the blog.  You'll be hearing more about her in a few weeks. And just a little forewarning, Peanut eats a lot of things she is not supposed to and then we find those things in the backyard, this is mostly what we'll be talking about.  Makes you want to come visit the blog more often, right?!?

 So you need some sort of soil, you can use any kind, this is just what we had.  You also need some grass seed.  If you lived in the Midwest last summer and refused to spend hundreds of dollars watering your lawn like I did, then you are probably intimately familiar with grass seed, or you should be!  You also need some pony tail holders, the more colorful the better, an old nylon, and a yogurt cup that you cut the bottom out of.

Mix 4 cups of the potting soil with 4 Tablespoons of grass seed.  Stir.

This was a favorite part of this craft. For the kids.  It was a reminder to me, that I should have covered the table with newspaper as that is where most of the potting soil ended up when a fight broke out over who was better at stirring.  Seriously?  Anyhoo ...

I have no pictures of the next part because it required me to use both hands and because of the aforementioned fighting, but here is what you want to do. 

• Put the yogurt cup in the top of the nylon so that it acts like a funnel.
• Scoop about 3/4 of a cup of the potting soil mix and pour into the nylon.
• Scoot the dirt all the way to the end and then secure that section with a ponytail holder.
• Repeat 4 more times.  Then tie a knot in the end and trim any excess nylon.

When you are done, it should look like this:

Now, soak this in water for 10 minutes.  Then place in a plastic bag overnight.  I just used an old Target bag.  The next morning, remove from bag, place on a flat surface, I used an old plate and get ready to make your caterpillar pretty!

After she is beautiful, place her in the sunlight. 

Make sure to water her every other day.

In 4 to 5 days, she should start sprouting hair.  Here is what ours looks like 5 days later:

Awesome right?  The kids love it and #1 is dying to give the caterpillar her first hair cut.

On a side note, is anyone else singing the Chia Pet song in their head right now?  Cha Cha Cha Cha Chia, Cha Cha Cha Cha Chia Pet ....

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day Craft #2: Toothbrush Bracelets

#1 loves this one!  Make bracelets out of old toothbrushes.  In my case, these were old in that I bought them probably 3 years ago because I got them for $0.25 at the height of my CVS bargain shopping days.  Then, we all switched to electric toothbrushes, so these have been sitting lonely in the cabinet waiting to be used. 

I searched the web looking for something to do with these and found this great craft on Kaboose.  They have a lot of fun stuff for kids, I would highly recommend checking them out.  You can see their original post HERE.

Here is what you need:  An old toothbrush.  Tweezers.  A pan of boiling water.  Tongs.  A coffee mug.

Start by pulling out all the bristles from the toothbrushes.  #1 helped with this, but quickly got frustrated.  It takes about 10 minutes to get them all out.  You are then left with this:

Drop it into the boiling water.

Let boil for 6 minutes.  Remove from water with tongs.

Now Kaboose says to use oven mitts to bend the bracelet into it's shape.  My oven mitts are bulky.  And they have holes, so I figured what was the point?  I just used my hands.  It was not that hot.  (Please note that I have also cut myself with every single sharp object we have in this house, so, maybe you might want to consider using the oven mitts, your call)  So pickup the toothbrush, either with gloves or without if you are throwing caution to the wind, and bend into a circle.

Once you have the shape you want, place it inside a coffee mug to keep it's shape while it cools.

After about 10 minutes, it is cool and ready to be modeled. 

I know all your little girls are going to love these!

One more craft coming at about noon, be sure to check it out!

Hallie